Soft Drinks

Venezuelan Regulators Investigating Coca-Cola Contract: PepsiCo Inc. has asked the country's antitrust agency, the Superintendency for the Promotion and Protection of Free Competition, to annul the contract between Coca-Cola Co. and Cisneros Group. The bottler is owned by Venezuelan businessman Oswaldo Cisneros and was for five decades Pepsi's exclusive bottler in that country. Last week, the bottler abrogated its contract with Pepsi to sign with Coke.

The Food and Drug Administration is reviewing the safety of caramel colorings used in a variety of foods, including colas and other dark soft drinks, to determine whether the agency should act to limit consumers' exposure to a chemical created during the manufacturing process. The agency's announcement Thursday came in response to a Consumer Report investigation that prompted the watchdog group Consumers Union to call for limits on 4-methyliminazole, or 4-Mel, an impurity produced in the production of some caramel colorings, as well as for labeling of products containing caramel coloring.

Sugary soft drinks are in the news again, this time linked to raised blood pressure. Added sugars in sodas, for example, have no nutritional value and pack on the calories. And though Americans hear the refrain over and over to cut back, they may not know by how much. The American Heart Assn. in 2009 issued guidelines for the maximum amount of sugar people could have in their daily diet. (Of course, it's OK to have none.) RELATED: Sugary drinks and high blood pressure -- a link?

MEXICO CITY - It may soon cost more to get fat in Mexico. New taxes on high-calorie foods and sugary drinks were approved by Mexico's lower house of Congress in a marathon 18-hour session that ended Friday, and are likely to become law. They are part of a broader package of taxes and other fiscal changes proposed by President Enrique Peña Nieto aimed at generating nearly $20 billion for the national treasury. Mexico has one of the world's highest rates of obesity, recently surpassing the United States, and health experts applauded higher prices for chips, candy and other chatarra , or junk food.

Ever since they made a marketing blunder of Edsel magnitude, it hasn't been easy for the makers of Coca-Cola. Now, as if the company didn't already have enough problems with the ill-fated new formula for its flagship soft drink, researchers at no less than Harvard Medical School find New Coke fails in yet another respect--sperm-killing ability when used (foolishly) as a contraceptive douche.

THE BIG GET BIGGER: Coca-Cola, the world's largest soft-drink company, agreed Thursday to buy No. 3 Dr Pepper for $470 million. The deal, which would give Coca-Cola 45.7% of the $25 billion-a-year soft-drink market, comes less than a month after arch-rival Pepsico agreed to acquire Seven-Up. The acquisitions, if allowed to proceed by the FTC, would give Coca-Cola and Pepsico nearly 80% of the market. 1985 market share of leading soft drink manufacturers Pepsico 27.4% Dr. Pepper 7.1% Seven-Up 6.

After successfully quashing discussion of a federal tax on soft drinks last year, Coca-Cola Co., PepsiCo Inc. and the fast-food industry are facing a new battle on the state level, where legislators are beginning to consider their own taxes on sweetened beverages. The next showdown could be in California, where legislators last week pledged to pass such a tax in light of new studies linking soft drink consumption to obesity in children and adults. One study suggests that obesity and related problems cost California alone $41 billion a year in medical expenses and reduced productivity.

The Food and Drug Administration is reviewing the safety of caramel colorings used in a variety of foods, including colas and other dark soft drinks, to determine whether the agency should act to limit consumers' exposure to a chemical created during the manufacturing process. The agency's announcement Thursday came in response to a Consumer Report investigation that prompted the watchdog group Consumers Union to call for limits on 4-methyliminazole, or 4-Mel, an impurity produced in the production of some caramel colorings, as well as for labeling of products containing caramel coloring.

Think nothing gets through to teenagers when it comes to making better dietary choices? Try telling the texting, video-game-playing, sofa-bound generation what it'll take to burn off the calories in one of their favorite soft drinks and they will run -- not walk, run! -- for the bottle of water beside it, a new study suggests. A message that required a bit more calculation -- the percentage of daily calorie intake a soda represents -- also succeeded in discouraging the purchase of sugar-sweetened beverages.

A consumer group is taking aim at high-fructose corn syrup in soft drinks, arguing that it and other sweeteners are responsible for high obesity rates and health problems because Americans drink too much soda. The Center for Science in the Public Interest filed a petition Wednesday with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration urging the agency to require beverage makers to reduce the amount of high-fructose corn syrup and other sweeteners. "In the past 10 years or so, researchers have done a variety of experiments and studies that connect soft drinks to obesity" and other health problems, said Michael F. Jacobson, executive director of the consumer group.

Diners confronted with the sweat equivalents of food offerings on a restaurant menu get a good, hard look at what they are in for -- and order a lower-calorie meal -- than do those who see actual calorie counts or no nutritional data at all, new research says. At Texas Christian University, researchers recruited 300 young adults and offered them each a menu with much of the usual casual dining fare: hamburgers, chicken sandwiches, French fries, salads, desserts, sodas and water. A third of the participants got a menu that had no calorie counts, and another third got a menu with the calorie counts of individual food items prominently listed.

Travelers who hail a cab in New Orleans will be able to do something riders nowhere else in the country will be able to do: Slide into the back seat and buy a cold soda from a vending machine. About 250 taxis will be outfitted with a touchscreen on which customers can swipe their credit or debit card to pay 99 cents for a Coke, Diet Coke or other soft drinks, a statement from the cab company says. The taxi drink dispenser is the brainchild of Simon Garber, an immigrant from Ukraine who owns New Orleans Carriage Cab and Yellow-Checker Cab. It took four years to develop the dispenser connected to a fridge that holds 36 cans, the company said.

A consumer group is taking aim at high-fructose corn syrup in soft drinks, arguing that it and other sweeteners are responsible for high obesity rates and health problems because Americans drink too much soda. The Center for Science in the Public Interest filed a petition Wednesday with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration urging the agency to require beverage makers to reduce the amount of high-fructose corn syrup and other sweeteners. "In the past 10 years or so, researchers have done a variety of experiments and studies that connect soft drinks to obesity" and other health problems, said Michael F. Jacobson, executive director of the consumer group.

Re "Soda giants' machines to post calorie counts," Business, Oct. 9 The so-called Western diet that has been invented mainly in America and is now spreading worldwide is responsible for declining health, including increased rates of diabetes, cancer and heart disease. Soft drinks are nothing more than liquid candy. Established guidelines from reliable sources recommend diets having a foundation of fruit and vegetables, whole grains, legumes and various other foods, including nuts and some fish.

The federal food assistance program SNAP pays $1.7 billion to $2.1 billion for purchases of sugar-sweetened beverages every year, a new study has found. Meanwhile, the government's Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend that we cut back on consumption of sugary drinks. A disconnect? The authors seem to think so. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits are important, they stress, but "allowing annual use of multibillions of SNAP benefits to purchase products that are at the core of public health concerns about obesity and chronic illnesses appears misaligned with the goals of helping low-income families live active, healthy lives.” They suggest that reauthorization of the SNAP program, set for later this year, "could be a good time to reconsider the program priorities to align use of public funds with fostering public health.

SACRAMENTO - Some of the largest corporate interests in California have poured millions of dollars into an initiative campaign this year, as they have many times before. But this time, they're not asking voters to ease industry regulations or limit government power. Instead, they want approval of an $8-billion-a-year tax hike pushed by Gov. Jerry Brown. Since taking office more than 18 months ago, the Democratic governor has held dozens of meetings with such unnatural allies as oil companies, insurers and telecommunications interests that typically stand with Republicans, taking stock of their concerns and pitching them on the need for higher taxes.

April 6, 1920: Three boys at Polytechnic High School in Long Beach broke into a shed beneath their school's grandstand and helped themselves to soda pop, cider and near beer left over from a weekend event. Soon, more than 100 students were drinking with them and burying what they couldn't drink around the campus "for future reference," The Times reported under the headline "Soda Pop Scandal Stirs Long Beach."

PepsiCo Inc. said it would reorganize its North American soft drink business, reversing changes made just 18 months ago, and close a Frito-Lay plant in Kentucky. The cost-cutting moves will reduce the North American workforce by about 750 and reverse Pepsi's June 2002 consolidation of its North American drinks business into one unit. Pepsi said it would record restructuring charges of about 6 cents a share in the fourth quarter. Its shares fell 57 cents to $48.14 on the NYSE.

This post has been updated. See note below for details. The high school or middle school student who can grab a sugar-sweetened soft drink on school grounds during class hours is becoming a rarity, a new study finds. But lots of kids still can buy high-sugar beverages in schools: Fruit juices and sports drinks that are designed for serious athletes engaged in vigorous physical activity remain widely sold in U.S. middle and high schools. In 2010-11, 25% of high school students had access to sugary sodas during school -- either at cafeteria concessions or from vending machines.

More than 100 health organizations and municipal public health departments, along with more than two dozen scientists, have asked the U.S. surgeon general to issue a report on sugar-sweetened soft drinks - akin to the landmark 1964 report on tobacco. “Soda and other sugary drinks are the only food or beverage that has been directly linked to obesity, a major contributor to coronary heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, and some cancers and a cause of psychosocial problems,” reads the letter, sent Thursday to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.